Learning from your mistakes. Your biggest OOPS moments.

[1911sup420]

When I was 15, for one thanksgiving I went on a trip with my best friend's family to his grandfather's house.

One afternoon his grandfather took us to an outdoor range to zero all his rifles to go hunting not to mention it'd be fun. Me and my friend at one lane with his dad while his grandfather was at the next with some other family members.

My friend was looking through the scope of the rifle and he had his finger in the trigger guard. I told him he shouldn't do that but I distinctly remember being annoyed because he wasn't speaking clearly on purpose. He made this "what?" face at me and I thought it'd be hilarious to pretend to speak to him but just barely pronounce the words so he could barely make out what I said.

I started mouthing words and my friend was really confused. He decided to take off his ear muffs. That instant the person in the next lane fired his rifle.

Long story short, my friend was practically deaf the entire time and to this day he still thinks I was really speaking to him but that he just couldn't hear me. He got chewed out by his grandfather and I remember him yelling "WELL OF COURSE YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND HIM YOU'RE WEARING EAR MUFFS WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DO" and just going ON and On and ON about hear loss and how he lost his and I was just like "ooooops" don't do that next time.

I definitely do not horse around on the gun range anymore. When I'm at the range I'm all about zoning in and prepping my mind for the kill.

 

[Treo]

My biggest "OOPS" moment.... Nope I'm going to call it what it was.

The dumbest thing I ever did W/ a firearm was point one at my bestfriend, tell him I was going to shoot him, and then ( thank God) turn 90 degrees and pull the trigger. After the bullet went through the wall I decided to be absoloute death on

"Never point a gun in an unsafe direction"

I was eleven, 27 years later a supply Seargent in HHB 2/157th FA (COANG) pointed an M-16 A2 at me and very nearly went home from drill looking like a popsickle.

 

[19-3Ben]

Forgot to unload my HD shotgun. Put it up on the bench pointing downrange during a ceasefire. We got back, and the old man next to me looks over and says "did I just walk downrange of a loaded shotgun that was pointed at me?" Oh boy was he pissed. One of the worst parts was that I was with a friend who had been kind enough to invite me to his private range, and now I made myself look like a reckless idiot, and made my friend look the same by association. That was over a year ago and to this day, my friend hasn't invited me to the range with him.
I still feel like a damned fool, because I am usually so careful, but I had one day when I screwed up.

Now, I'm even more anal than I was before. I hadn't made a mistake like that before, and I certainly haven't made it since!!!

 

[COMPNOR]

So far the only thing I've done(though I've done it twice) was not dropping the magazine first when clearing out my M9. The weapon was on safe, so it wouldn't have cocked had the slide gone forward and chambered another round, but not taking the time, instead being in a rush, worse can happen.

 

[Prepster]

My dumbest thing: I was open carrying back when I still had my G19. I was in the food store with a few buddies (we were cooking dinner for some sorority girls that night) and I went to pick up something, and then ran back to the group because we were running behind. In the process, I snagged my belt-mounted Serpa on a woman's shopping cart which made a pretty loud noise and stopped me in my tracks. She looked like she was going to have a heart attack, so I apologized excessively and got out of there as fast as I could.

 

[Code3GT]

I was preparing to deploy overseas and my SRT team was at another AFB for training as our range got shut down (POS range). During M203 training, we had LOTS of leftover training rounds. The orange dust emitting rounds. Well one guy was checking out a DFP (defensive fighting post made of sandbags/limbs) about 50-60m out. After checking the wind, I put a training round up wind and about 10 feet from him. He came out of the DFP looking like a camoflauge dreamsicle It doesnt wash off easily and he was pretty mad for a while but we all ended up having a good laugh over it that night with some beers.

 

[Rmac58]

Tie, I removed a very small screw from my revolver, thought I put it in a safe place, but knocked over the cup it was in. It landed in a pile of leaves. I was able to retrieve it tho.

Just today, I was taking apart my new to me Vz 27, to clean it, and now can't get it back together!

 

[jrfoxx]

managed to inadvertantly double tap (or bumpfire, not sure which would be more accurate) my 1911 shortly aftre I bought it. I squeezed off a shot at my target, and it fired twice real fast. Stunned the heck out of me. Both runds even hit the target ner the center, with the second a few inches higher. Gun has been 100% flawlees after MANY 1000's of rounds and trips in the 5 years since, so I can only assue it was me, and I was holding it just right, and when it recoiled, I bump fired it. didnt know you couls do that with a handgun, but, pparently you can.

Second boo-boo was when I was working to break loose a 120 year old rusty screw on a "relic" Mauser 71/84 I was trying to restore/refinish. Was leaning into the screwdriver/screw with (literally) ALL of my weight. Well, it slipped, and I drove that sucker right through the meat of my thumb, just to the side of the nail, even with the base. Hurt like for a couple weeks, especially when it decided to go on the occasional throbbing binge. I am WAY more careful to be mindful of where my "off" hand is when working on really stubblorn screws now. That was a pretty painful lesson.

Gun looks and shoots great though, and I managed to salvage a neat, rusty old relic,for 1/2 the going going for a rough condition, and likely saved it from eventually ending up being sold as scrap and lost forever. In spite of being completely covered in rust on the outside, the bore, rifling, etc had only tiny surface rust, and all the dates, Prussian crowns, and other markings are in amazing condition. In the end, it was probly worth it, but just barely.

 

[neviander]

I was spending the weekend at my friends house in northern Michigan (Kalkaska) and we were plinking around the house with our 22's. I had a bolt action Magtech model 122 .22 with a 10 round mag, I think he had a Ruger 10/22, or a Marlin model 60. His older brother, also my friend, was walking back through a field in front of a line of young pine trees from checking his target, or setting a target, or whatever. As I was still plinking away at pine cones and tips of snow banks....anything dark in the snow. I was firing at maybe a little less than 90° from his direction and all off a sudden he starts yelling "WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! STOP SHOOTING!" I look over in his direction, wondering what he's talking about; he's saying something as he's walking, he's still a good 100 yards off and I can't hear him clearly. He gets up close and says "That went right by my head!"

I was wide eyed, "Really? crap, I'm sorry man" I was firing at, what I think I remember as, a twig maybe 20 feet off the ground, still attached to the tree. It's pretty amazing where a ricochet can go. Beware of that.

 

[CombatArmsUSAF]

I was probably 12 or 13 at the time and my parents weren't home. I was in their bedroom looking at the guns and picked up my mom's .25 ACP Beretta Bobcat. Well, I picked it up, racked the slide, and ejected the magazine. (You guys can see where this is going) A few minutes go by and "BANG" a .25 ACP goes through my mom's antique dresser. I filled the holes with toothpaste and colored them to match. My parents were completely unaware of it until quite a few years later when I went home on leave and told them about it.

Even still, i had to show it to them because they didn't believe they hadn't caught it.

To this day I remember that and always double and triple check when clearing my firearms.

 

[RP88]

once upon a time, there was a college kid who assumed that all guns were made with straight sights and weren't junky. He later learned from his mistake when the rear sight fell off and saw that the front one was off by a noticeable few degrees.

Now, he thoroughly inspects every gun - new or used - regardless of how reputable the manufacturer, model, etc. is. He also never 'buys cheap' anymore, and sees guns as a quality investment, and not as a money-saver. "You won't find a good putter at a putt-putt course."

 

[Zach S]

Dropped a gun once, and as if that wast stupid enough, I caught it. Put a hole in a fosgate subwoofer and Q logic box that I was planning to install in my car.

Left the house with a 5" kimber. Got to the range, fired off one mag, reloaded, click. TRB, click. Took the mag out and it was for an officers model. My second reload as well.

Most of my pistol triggertime has been behind a 1911. I didn't try to learn to count rounds, I just sort of picked it up. Took me a while to keep myself from slamming a fresh magazine in my G17 after firing seven rounds...

 

[230RN]

I was, like fourteen, and I had my Crosman pump-up .177 handgun with me when I spotted a bird on a telephone wire. "Ah,heck, I'd never actually hit it," so I took aim, fired, and the bird fell off the line. I reluctantly walked up to it and indeed it was dead. I felt awful about it and never forgot the lesson involved.

I was a little miffed many decades later when one of my young sons fired my .243 at a steel fence post not expecting to hit it, but did. I was back at the car about thirty feet away getting a drink or something. He was pretty young, and now he knows better, but I had to recount the bird-on-telephone-wire story to him. (See attached.)

Both of the above were pretty darned good shots from a purely technical standpoint, but...

So I guess that makes two boo-boo moments, and although one of them didn't involve me, the parallel is obvious. No remarks about it being genetic, please.

I've heard a couple of tales like that, where someone takes a shot at something they never expected to hit and actually did. Usually, it's something that shouldn't have a hole in it.

I seem to recall some silly Rule somewhere about not pointing a gun at anything you don't want to destroy.

Well, it goes something like that, anyhow.

 

[Aka Zero]

No biggies yet. Too paranoid. Only time I pull the trigger is when a target is in front of my, or I KNOW a snap cap is in the gun. Never dry fire.

Only real "oops" moments were when I looked at my old .22 rifle and 30-30 in the gun cabinet and they started to get surface rust. Didn't shoot for a long time, but never did any long term storage treatment to them. They got a thorough cleaning and coating of oil before going back into the cabinet.

 

[Loosedhorse]

My biggest firearm related OOPS: ADs. Yes, two of them, a couple years apart.

First one (obviously) didn't teach me anything--I just thought I was "due" for one. Second one shook me up the way the first one should have. Changed A LOT of my gun behaviors since them.

There are only two bigger firearms-related OOPSes I can think of: letting the muzzle point in an unsafe direction, and being unsure of your target when you shoot. I think we all know what can happen with these mistakes.

Of course, there are so many regulations/laws regarding firearms, you can have a really big OOPS (really change the direction of your life) without ever being unsafe. So know the laws.

Be safe.

 

[berettaprofessor]

Warning; Glock bash coming......Rented a Glock 19 at a range once to see what all the fuss was about. Third round or so I accidentally double-tapped or bump-fired the trigger; second round went into the concrete ceiling at 20 feet out to add to the many pockmarks from others. Finished that box and then turned it in. It was probably because I wasn't used to the "safety" trigger, but it was enough to teach me I'd never own a Glock.

 

[Rxxdoc]

Do BB guns count?

I was a kid 10 or 11 years old, and I thought I would shoot at this tree right straight in front of me.

The BB came flying back and hit me square between the eyes. LOL.

I learned about ricochets that day. The hard way of course.

 

[Gtone]

Thought I'd be cool and fire my '87 SG from the hip. Until the ceiling exploded at 20yds in the range. Dummy.

 

[Bad Penny 03]

Warning; Glock bash coming......Rented a Glock 19 at a range once to see what all the fuss was about. Third round or so I accidentally double-tapped or bump-fired the trigger; second round went into the concrete ceiling at 20 feet out to add to the many pockmarks from others. Finished that box and then turned it in. It was probably because I wasn't used to the "safety" trigger, but it was enough to teach me I'd never own a Glock.

Did you say bump fire a Glock ?

 

[BADUNAME37]

This wasn't my oops, but someone else and it affected me.

I was at a Bible school and this numbskull brings his black powder pistol to hunt at the school in the mountains.

I remember we were in a dorm room and he called me over and him and his buddy were laughing and he pointed this thing at my stomach and fired something which sounded like a 12 gauge going off with a huge fireball (about 4' away from me). He had some sort of a blank load in it.

I was so pissed, I yelled at him that you never aim at anything you don't want to shoot! I reamed him out about how you TREAT EVERY GUN AS IF IT WERE LOADED, and had there been something in the barrel that he was not aware of, I could be dead! I asked if he even knows the ten gun rules and that is one of them! He was taken back at how much I knew about guns, and here he is, the only person at the school with a gun and doesn't even know the basic rules! IDIOT!

Boy, was I pissed. I also went to the head of the school and told him the story.

Once, when I was about 11, it was really cold out and I shot a brick wall straight-on from about 5' away with my BB gun. The BB ricocheted straight back and hit the very tip of my left thumb. Being frozen to begin with, then having that BB hit it, I remember well the PAIN which lasted a good 5-10 minutes!

 

[indiandave]

I shot my self with a BB gun when I was 10. Don't ask how just stupid kids stuff . (it really hurt!)

 

[KI.W.]

I was learning,that BRNO break open one barrel .22 Hornet is ****ty rifle.
I was loadin cartridgers for it and will to know was they to long. When I shut the rifle easly and finger out from trigger it says "bam", I say:"Perkele"* and bullet goes from kitchen to bath rum. There was 3/8" hole in the wall of kitchen, but 2" in the bathrum. Bullet was Sako SP 45grs 2400fps.
My wife was at work and I shall to have some Plastic Padding.

*"perkele" is the big boss in the hell in Finnish

 

[Cmdr. Gravez0r]

My biggest lesson about guns was not to take the power of the trigger lightly. Similar to the poster above--

I was practicing with my pellet rifle when a bird landed on the ground between me and the target. I took a shot what I thought was six inches to the left of the bird and shot it through the neck. It had to have been a deformed pellet or freak happening as my aim was sure.

"Never point at anything you are not willing to destroy."

 

[KI.W.]

I shall to tell also when I keep trying my reloads in the chambers, I ponit alvays the gun to wall of kitchen. Never to window or go to balkongy, because if the gun says "Bang", policemen start to surround my home. I must then say to my guns doodbays.
When that BRNO ****ty rifle was making noise I start strong hammering and nobody knows what that voice really was. When I load have always big hammer with me.

 

[davec921]

Well this was my brothers doing but still hit home on making sure to allways point the gun in a safe place an never point at anything you dont intend to shoot.

He had a crossman CO2 pistol with a 15rnd clip. He thought he had fired all the pellets.

Then he got the bright idea to see what the CO2 felt like when the gun was fired.

Yea so he pointed it at his little finger an pulled the trigger.
Yep you guessed it put a pellet right in the meat of his little finger.

Luckly the CO2 was allmost empty an it never hit the bone. Just embedded right in the skin. But bow did it surprise him